Podcast appearances and mentions of estelle doheny

Robin Wilson of the University of Illinois, Shannon Minter of National Center for Lesbian Rights, Cicily Bennion and Alexis Watson of BYU on the Equality Act. Imam Khalid Latif of NYU on Muslim advocate. Margaret Leslie Davis on her book about the Gutenberg Bible and rare book collector Estelle Doheny, called "The Lost Gutenberg."

For rare-book collectors, an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible—of which there are fewer than 50 in existence (and which can sell for $100 million)—represents the ultimate prize. One copy, Number 45, passed through the hands of Johannes Gutenberg, monks, an earl, billionaires, bibliophiles, the Worcestershire sauce king, and a nuclear physicist before arriving at its ultimate resting place, in a steel vault in Tokyo. Estelle Doheny, the first woman collector to add the book to her library and its last private owner, tipped the Bible onto a trajectory that forever changed our understanding of the first mechanically printed book. In today's episode I'm speaking with Margaret Leslie Davis, author of The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey. She focuses on two protagonists in her story: the copy of the Gutenberg Bible itself and Doheny, a California heiress who emerged from scandal to chase it. We discussed the value we place on rare books, and the shifting wealth and power of those who hunt them.

Of the millions of books that have been published, few are as renowned or as coveted today by collectors as the famous Bible printed in the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg. In The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey (TarcherPerigee, 2019), Margaret Leslie Davis traces the journey of one copy of this book – known as Number 45 – over the course of two centuries as it changed hands through a succession of owners. As Davis explains, at the start of the 19th-century Gutenberg Bibles were not as highly prized by the growing market of rare book collectors, which allowed Archibald Acheson, the third earl of Gosford, to acquire Number 45 for a relatively small sum in 1836. By the time it was sold nearly a half-century later, however, its status had skyrocketed and with it the price it commanded. After a succession of British owners, Davis describes the book’s acquisition in 1950 by the American heiress Estelle Doheny, which brought Number 45 across the Atlantic Ocean and into the hands of the only woman known to own a copy. Though the book was donated to a Catholic seminary upon her death along with the rest of her collection, its sale in 1987 to a Japanese publisher led to a second transoceanic journey that brought it to Japan. There Number 45 became the first Gutenberg accessible to millions as its pages were subsequently photographed and the images posted on the Internet for anyone online to see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Of the millions of books that have been published, few are as renowned or as coveted today by collectors as the famous Bible printed in the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg. In The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey (TarcherPerigee, 2019), Margaret Leslie Davis traces the journey of one copy of this book – known as Number 45 – over the course of two centuries as it changed hands through a succession of owners. As Davis explains, at the start of the 19th-century Gutenberg Bibles were not as highly prized by the growing market of rare book collectors, which allowed Archibald Acheson, the third earl of Gosford, to acquire Number 45 for a relatively small sum in 1836. By the time it was sold nearly a half-century later, however, its status had skyrocketed and with it the price it commanded. After a succession of British owners, Davis describes the book’s acquisition in 1950 by the American heiress Estelle Doheny, which brought Number 45 across the Atlantic Ocean and into the hands of the only woman known to own a copy. Though the book was donated to a Catholic seminary upon her death along with the rest of her collection, its sale in 1987 to a Japanese publisher led to a second transoceanic journey that brought it to Japan. There Number 45 became the first Gutenberg accessible to millions as its pages were subsequently photographed and the images posted on the Internet for anyone online to see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Of the millions of books that have been published, few are as renowned or as coveted today by collectors as the famous Bible printed in the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg. In The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey (TarcherPerigee, 2019), Margaret Leslie Davis traces the journey of one copy of this book – known as Number 45 – over the course of two centuries as it changed hands through a succession of owners. As Davis explains, at the start of the 19th-century Gutenberg Bibles were not as highly prized by the growing market of rare book collectors, which allowed Archibald Acheson, the third earl of Gosford, to acquire Number 45 for a relatively small sum in 1836. By the time it was sold nearly a half-century later, however, its status had skyrocketed and with it the price it commanded. After a succession of British owners, Davis describes the book’s acquisition in 1950 by the American heiress Estelle Doheny, which brought Number 45 across the Atlantic Ocean and into the hands of the only woman known to own a copy. Though the book was donated to a Catholic seminary upon her death along with the rest of her collection, its sale in 1987 to a Japanese publisher led to a second transoceanic journey that brought it to Japan. There Number 45 became the first Gutenberg accessible to millions as its pages were subsequently photographed and the images posted on the Internet for anyone online to see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Of the millions of books that have been published, few are as renowned or as coveted today by collectors as the famous Bible printed in the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg. In The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey (TarcherPerigee, 2019), Margaret Leslie Davis traces the journey of one copy of this book – known as Number 45 – over the course of two centuries as it changed hands through a succession of owners. As Davis explains, at the start of the 19th-century Gutenberg Bibles were not as highly prized by the growing market of rare book collectors, which allowed Archibald Acheson, the third earl of Gosford, to acquire Number 45 for a relatively small sum in 1836. By the time it was sold nearly a half-century later, however, its status had skyrocketed and with it the price it commanded. After a succession of British owners, Davis describes the book’s acquisition in 1950 by the American heiress Estelle Doheny, which brought Number 45 across the Atlantic Ocean and into the hands of the only woman known to own a copy. Though the book was donated to a Catholic seminary upon her death along with the rest of her collection, its sale in 1987 to a Japanese publisher led to a second transoceanic journey that brought it to Japan. There Number 45 became the first Gutenberg accessible to millions as its pages were subsequently photographed and the images posted on the Internet for anyone online to see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lou Alpert on her new memoir "Surrender," it's a love letter to her daughter, who suffers from opioid addiction. Then, Margaret Leslie Davis on her book about the Gutenberg Bible and rare book collector Estelle Doheny, called "The Lost Gutenberg."